“Top-hole. And you?”
“Never fitter in my life. Good lord, it’s fine to see you again, Harry. Had a ripping time on board. There was a French girl who sang....”
Bruton interrupted him by placing a sudden hand on his friend’s arm.
“An awf’ly rotten thing’s happened, Dick. I must tell you all about it before we arrive. I’ve got a friend here in Athens—a man called Gascoyne. Yesterday his girl jilted him and ran off God knows where with another fellow. She played up to him—to Gascoyne, I mean—to the very last moment: spent the evening with him the day before she skedaddled. Well, Gascoyne’s done—absolutely broken. All yesterday and last night I was with him, literally keeping him from suicide. I am going to him now: I daren’t leave him alone.”
“Good Lord!” exclaimed Cassels. “Rather a weak sort of devil, isn’t he? And why the dickens should you bother about him, anyway? This is going to knock the bottom out of our holiday.”
“I’m afraid it is. But, you see, he’s all alone and I’m his closest friend. His mother’s dead, his father’s away, and there he is with just one man-servant, a Greek, living alone in an enormous, rambling house. I scarcely liked to leave him even while I came to meet you.”
Cassels cursed under his breath and lit a cigarette.
“I’m beastly sorry,” said Bruton, “but what can I do? If anything should happen to him I should blame myself for ever.”
“Oh, you’re doing quite the right thing, old son,” Cassels assured him, “but what a damned ass the man is! It makes me sick the way young fools carry on about women.”
“But he’s not a fool. As self-contained and manly a chap as you could wish to meet. Now, listen. What I propose to do is this. We’ll go and seek him now, have breakfast together, and persuade him to come back with us to my place. I can easily put him up. Wherever we go we’ll take him with us. He wants pulling out of himself, and in a day or two he’ll probably be all right. But just at present he’s dangerous—dangerous to himself, I mean, though I may tell you I’ve got his revolver all right. But here we are.”